The New York Times' virtual reality app puts you inside the story

For its entire history, one of The New York Times' main goals is to bring its readers to the front lines. Now it has a new means to achieve this goal.

After an October announcement of a partnership with Google to produce virtual reality (VR) films, The New York Times has launched its new VR app, appropriately titled NYT VR, on Thursday. The app debuted with two feature films, one titled The Displaced tells the story of three children swept up in the world's refugee crisis, and the other shows making of a recent New York Times Magazine cover.

The experience is exactly what you'd expect out of the Times doing VR, and while that might sound like it's a disappointment, it's not. The two films, especially The Displaced, are powerful pieces of journalism that add incredible depth to the Times' already-excellent reporting.

It's one thing to read about read about the refugee crisis, but being placed right in these war-torn worlds, able to look around at the people and the environment, changes your perspective substantially. Similarly, it's easy to admire the cover of the Times Magazine "Walking New York" cover, but seeing the artist photograph from a helicopter above Manhattan will blow your mind.

Where VR is often gimmicky, the Times' take is powerful.

The only criticism I have against the content is for The Displaced, which is subtitled since the three children profiled don't speak English. The subtitles appear on the screen in multiple places, but they're still easy to miss if you're looking. I found them somewhat difficult to read, but one of my colleagues didn't — so your mileage may vary.

Otherwise, it's somewhat difficult to imagine who specifically NYT VR is for. While it's a pretty fantastic experience, it's much more involved than simply reading a story or watching the news on TV passively. These are minor quibbles though, in what is otherwise an excellent app.

The mission of the Times is to bring its readers to the story, not just report on it from a distance. With VR, the Times has taken a huge leap ahead in doing so. Considering it's only planning on publishing more content to the app once a month or so, it won't change the news business, but NYT VR is very successful in bringing what's great about the Times to VR.

Source : mashable.com